A Visit with the Clydesdales

Teresa took the Taylor's to Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, MO, home to more than 70 Clydesdales ranging from foals to stallions.

At the last minute, Goldie was running a fever so Melissa had to stay home. Walking around in 30 degree weather looking at horses just isn't my thing so I chose to stay home. The kids enjoyed it and had a very good experience. Maybe next year Teresa can come up with an indoor activity.

Jamie's Birthday

We had dinner on my birthday to celebrate my and Jamie's birthdays. Crazy as usual but always nice getting all my family together.

Jamie's gift was holding down the fort while Melissa and Violet headed to Omaha for Violet's first scrimmage volleyball tournament.

But when Violet woke up this morning in Omaha, she had a 101* temperature so they turned around and headed back home. Not the best birthday gift for Jamie but look on the bright side. He got to spend quality time with Lincoln, Hazel and Goldie. Happy Birthday Jamie. May next year be even better!

Another Milestone Birthday

The dreaded day has finally arrived. I turned 70 years old.

It's not too bad. It was actually more like Christmas for me. Lots of goodies.

I remember when I was much younger, like in my 20's, thinking 70 years old was ancient. Honestly, it is!

Elf on the Shelf

Sprinkles, Frosty and Sparkles arrived today marking the official start of Christmas at the Taylor house.

Melissa always seems to find cute ways to stage the elves.

I had an elf when Violet and Lincoln were younger but I gave that chore up. Too much preparation for me plus no one gets to see my Elf on the Shelf but me. Am I turning into Scrooge? Goldie didn't make the first picture. She was still sleeping.

The First Snowfall

I believe in the old folklore that the date of the first measurable snowfall correlates with the number of times it will snow this winter.

November 30th was the first snowfall which means we'll have 29 more days of measurable snow. Why couldn't the snow gods have waited one more day which would have been the 1st of December leaving only 1 more day of snow.

This was 2 hours after the snow started to fall. The total wasn't much and the next day all the snow was melted. Typical Missouri weather. Snow and temperatures in the 20's one day and sunny skies and temperatures in the 50's the next. Why do I even live in this state? Oh yeah, my family is here!

Thanksgiving

I take advantage at Thanksgiving to have everyone help set up my outdoor Christmas decorations.

I was running back and forth between the yard and the kitchen and forgot to take one single picture of everyone working. Bushes were cut down, lights were put up and the whole menagerie of flamingos, geese, the pig and even the dinosaur was set up. If you look real close, you can see me sitting on the bench next to the tree.

I blame my forgetfulness of taking pictures to making the perfect Thanksgiving meal. No dry turkey over here. At least I can still cook!

VIP Day at Mason

I've been going to VIP Day (Grandparent's Day) for the past 7 years starting when Violet was in Kindergarten.

Violet has moved on to middle school so now it's Hazel and Lincoln.

The donuts are the same, the picture booth changes just a bit, but I swear these desks keep getting smaller and smaller and lower to the ground.

Happy Birthday Lola & Khloe

Lola and Khloe are celebrating their 13th birthday.

They may be losing their hearing and arthritis is setting in but bring out the bacon and they're just like puppies!

The Magic of Christmas

I can remember as a child we didn't start decorating for Christmas until after Dad's birthday (December 15th).

As I got older, I would wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up my tree. Now you barely get through Halloween before the decorations come out.

Add to that if you have children, most of them have their own tree in their bedrooms to decorate. Maybe the magic of Christmas isn't the one you create but the one you find along the way. In other words, "Just wing it"!

Birthday Shopping

I've given up on trying to buy present for my kids and my grandkids. So instead I set up a date to take them shopping and let them pick what they want.

Lincoln has always been my hardest kid to buy for but this buying trip was actually fairly easy. We had our annual lunch at Taco Bell where Lincoln showed me how he can eat the hottest hot sauce they offer. I, on the other hand, have trouble with their mild sauce. We then headed to Dick's for new shoes, a shirt, a rubic's Chiefs cube, socks and sunglasses. We finished up at Target and headed home. While he had the biggest smile on his face, I had to come home and take a nap.

Lincoln's 9th Birthday

Birthday number 9. Why do I remember so much of his birth like it was yesterday?

Melissa has this tradition of taking a picture of her kids the night before their birthday. Like magically they'll have this great change overnight. Maybe in a few weeks it will happen to me...only I'll look years younger!

We had a family birthday party at Fun House Pizza. What a place to have a kid's birthday party. The adults sit around the table and talk while the kids go through rolls of quarters. Best birthday party ever. Happy Birthday to my grandson, Lincoln. What a pleasure it is to be your Ma!

Trip to Vegas

What better way to get out of the house than a trip to Vegas to visit my friends. This time I stayed at the Red Rock Casino and Spa. It's a little northwest of the strip in Summerlin, NV, but it was gorgeous and HUGE! There were at least 5 upscale restaurants, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a food court, an arcade for kids and many, many slot machines!

Of course, as usual, I forgot to take pictures of my friends but I did get a somewhat nice picture of the Red Rock mountains outside my VIP suite. Joe, my casino host, suggested this would be a great place to bring the family. Now who wants to bring kids to Las Vegas 🎰

Lincoln's Flag Football Super Bowl

Lincoln's flag football team, the Vikings, made it into the Super Bowl again this year.

While they didn't win, they made a big come back in the 4th quarter but it wasn't quite enough to beat the other team. I was in Las Vegas so I missed the game. Sure is a good thing I didn't put a sports bet on them 😄

Halloween

Besides watching Goldie for a couple of hours while Melissa does school activities with the older kids, my Halloween will be spent passing out candy but only until I either run out of candy or it hits 9:00 pm. Then the porch light goes out and I go to bed.

Violet, Lincoln, Hazel and Goldie have already had many different Halloween parties. This is from Haunt the Halls at Lincoln and Hazel's school. Melissa made the monster decorations for in front of Hazel's school door.

Then there was the traditional carving of the pumpkins at the Taylor house. I think some of the kids are carving their own pumpkins instead of Jamie having to carve all of them. Trick or Treat!

2024 Presidential Election

Jamie and I are going to be out of town on November 5th so we headed to the Independence square to vote early.

No one in line, very seamless and out in less than 10 minutes. I hate to even think of the lines that will form on the 5th at regular voting places. From what I've heard, I lot of people are voting early although the lines at getting longer. Hopefully the country won't break out in riots as some are predicting. I'll be in Las Vegas. One of the most crowded places in America. I'll probably just stay inside the casino and let the world fall part without me! 😳

A Visit From Michele and the Pumpkin Patch

Michele made a trip to St Louis by plane to visit friends, then took the Amtrak to Lee's Summit.

Teresa was on standby to go to HiBoy and pick up tenderloins and onion rings when Michele's train arrived.

Little did they know I had a few Halloween decorations I needed help setting up. Wasn't the most fun thing to do on your vacation but at least it was something. 

The next day we met up with the Taylors and went to the pumpkin patch. the Pumpkin Pad in Lone Jack had a few more activities than years before and kept us pretty busy.

The best part was sitting down for a snack of mini donuts and water. It was pretty hot for a day in October.

After a few hours we said good-bye to the Taylors and headed to Smoke Brewery for a little barbecue and beer flights. That's about as much as we could handle in one day.

Time seem to fly when Michele is here and I was surprised when a few days later a received a bouquet of flowers. For a while I thought I had a secret admirer but they were a thank you from Michele. Almost better than a secret admirer!

Jefferson Starship & Marshall Tucker

Teresa and I went to see Jefferson Starship and The Marshall Tucker Band at the Folly Theater. A small venue but I like smaller venues.

My favorite was Jefferson Starship. They started with songs from the 70's when they were called Jefferson Airplane. I didn't recognize the songs. Then they started singing songs from the 80's. There were a few that I didn't realize were their songs like We Built This City on Rock and Roll. While only one person was from the original band, they were very good.

Then came The Marshall Tucker Band. The original guy and founder of the band, Doug Gray, was still with them. He's 76 years old. Thank goodness the other members of the band were good and could carry him. I thought it was funny that they only played for an hour but it was getting close to 10:00 pm and the crowd of 300+ was starting to thin. Bedtime for us oldies. All in all, a pretty good concert.

A Couple Hours with Goldie

While Melissa went to her doctor's appointment, Goldie came to stay with me.

We first had to go check out the path to the pond to see the goose poop. What is kid's fascination with poop???? The goose poop was all cleaned up and Goldie insisted I did it. At least we didn't have to step around it while slowing going down the hill to the pond.

Then we spent the rest of our time playing Play Doh. This is about the only thing that Goldie will spend more than 5 minutes playing. I'm going to have to buy some new Play Doh tools. The few that I have just aren't enough.

Grandparent's Day

We celebrated Grandparent's Day watching Lincoln play football.

Lincoln scored a touchdown and that was present enough for me. My shirt reflects Lincoln's football team, the Vikings. But I'm a Chiefs girl through and through!

Monarch's Baseball Game

One of the few events I do with my retirement group is go to the Monarch's baseball game.

I try and recruit Teresa to go with me so I don't have to make that long drive to the stadium out by the Legends by myself. While it wasn't raining, the humidity was about to kill us. I got to see a few of my former KCP&L friends but next year I may consider passing on this event. Sweat and I don't seem to get along.

First Day of School

Well the new school year has started and mothers across the country are tying to get that first day of school pic. I've even seen commercials where companies are using this first day of school pic movement in their ads. It's hilarious. It takes about 25 shots in order to get that one almost perfect shot.

Hazel starts kindergarten. Lincoln is going into the 3rd grade. And Violet is going to middle school starting 6th grade.

It's a good thing Hazel was able to bring all her school supplies to school yesterday or this backpack might have tipped her over.

While Lincoln wasn't that excited about going back to school, he sure was happy with his new classroom, teacher and desk. Let's hope the school year goes smoothly. Meanwhile, Melissa will be at home with Goldie. That's a class in itself! 

Another Evening with the Kids While Violet Gets Contacts

I love watching the kids during lunch or dinner time. It makes the time go quicker!

Before going to dinner, we decided to spend a little time at the park.

The weather was amazing and very crowded.

Parents were probably taking advantage of one more day with the kids before school starts.

I had the kids because Violet was at the doctor practicing putting in her new contacts. I almost didn't recognize her when she got home. I can't believe she's growing up so fast.

Getting to Know Your School

So many things have changed trying to get kids adjusted to going to school. I think when I was going to grade school, Mom just loaded us in the car the first day of school and we were on our own.

Violet is going to middle school this year. There's a few more kids in her class from other grade schools merging to middle school but to me it's the same friends going into a different building. I can understand having a "dry run" so she can find her locker and classrooms on the first day of school.

Hazel is starting kindergarten. Hazel may seem shy and unsure but she can handle anything (except taking pics). Her introduction to kindergarten included popsicles on the playground.

Goldie filled in taking a picture in front of Hazel's locker.

And Lincoln....well he could care less about going to school. But another school year starts soon.

Evening with the Kids

After the volleyball uniform fiasco, there was a pool party for the girls. Hazel and Goldie had been running fevers but I just couldn't take any more volleyball mom drama so I chose to watch the kids and let Melissa take Violet to her party.

The kids didn't seem sick to me. We walked down to the pond being extra careful not to step in the goose poop.

Lincoln would have thrown every rock into the pond but I limited him to any rock that wasn't bigger than his hand. I'm sure the neighbors were watching out their windows wondering why those kids were throwing rocks in the pond. They complain about everything.

Then we came home and played with the ball in the back yard. This was a total of watching kids for about 7 hours in one day. And I thought I was retired!